THONISSEN, JEAN-JOSEPH. - Belgian jurist and politician, b. Jan. 10, 1816 in Hasselt, d. Aug. 17, 1891 in Louvain.
After graduating in law from the University of Liège in 1838, he became, after a period of further study in Paris, deputy public prosecutor of the king at the court of Hasselt in 1845.
His direct experience of the defects of the Penal Code of 1810, later amended by various special laws, prompted him to draft a work that would give an organic picture of the criminal legislation in force. The publication of the first vol. of this Complément au Code pénal in 1847, besides earning him much praise, secured for him the chair of criminal law at the University of Louvain. But as early as 1844 he had published La Constitution belge annotée (two further editions in 1876 and 1879), still a valuable aid for scholars. The crisis of 1848 moved him to deal with socialism in two writings: Le socialisme et ses promesses (1850) and Le socialisme depuis l'antiquité jusqu'à la Constitution française du 14 janvier (1852). Historical reconstructions, on the other hand, are the volumes La Belgique sous le règne de Léopold I (4 vols., 1855-58) and the lives of Count Félix de Mérode (1862) and of Ferdinand de Meeus (1863). In 1862 in a small book he declared himself hostile to the death penalty (La prétendue nécessité de la peine de mort), raising great controversy. A convinced Catholic, he agreed in 1863 to stand as a candidate in the elections for the chamber and, having been elected, had his mandate reconfirmed until his death. In the parliamentary chamber he soon won, through his learning and independence of judgment, not only the respect of his colleagues in his own party but also that of the liberals. After having criticized and fought in 1865-66 the law on foundations and scholarships, which was contrary to Catholics, he separated himself in 1868 from his party colleagues on the question of national defense. Considered therefore too militaristic, he did not enter the Catholic cabinet that remained in power from 1871 to 1878; he even found himself in conflict with the ministry over the request, made in parliament, to introduce compulsory military service or a system of volunteering instead of the one based on conscription by lot. In the Catholic cabinet presided over by Beernaert, T. was minister of the Interior and of Public Instruction from Oct. 1884 to Oct. 1887. Stricken by pulmonary congestion and paralysis in 1888, he spent his last years in an almost complete state of unconsciousness.